Baseball’s championship has shined the national spotlight on long-frustrated franchises who have failed to win titles for what seems like light years.

The Fall Classic showcasing the forlorn Chicago Cubs and Cleveland Indians also has revived the contentious debate over the use of Native American mascots for pro, college and high school sport teams — including several schools across Southern California.

It doesn’t help that the Indians continue to sport a cartoonish, red-faced, buck-toothed Chief Wahoo logo many find objectionable. But some suggest the buzz is another example of political correctness running out of control.

“They’re back in the World Series,” said James Fenelon, professor of sociology and director of the Center for Indigenous Peoples Studies at Cal State San Bernardino. “And, sure enough, people are coming out in flat-out racist imagery and actions, dancing around and prancing.”

According to the Cleveland Plain Dealer, the team has used the name “Indians” for a century and various logos. A spokesman for the baseball club did not return calls seeking comment.

In recent months, the team has downplayed the widely recognizable Chief Wahoo image. As the 2016 season began, team owner Paul Dolan said the Indians had gone to the “Block C” as its primary logo, the Plain Dealer reported, but didn’t plan to retire Wahoo.

Throughout the playoff run, the character has been displayed on players’ sleeves and caps.

Part of baseball

Aaron Aceves said he doesn’t understand what all the fuss is about.

“We have to be considerate,” said the 35-year-old commercial construction worker from Lake Elsinore, relaxing at Events Sports Grill, a Riverside sports bar Wednesday, as the national anthem was sung for Game 2 of the World Series.

If anything, Aceves said, it would seem the Indians’ name honors Native Americans.

“I think they should wear these national team names with pride,” he said. “It keeps their heritage alive.”

His friend and construction partner, Ryan Leath, 36, of Riverside, said it would be a shame to do away with the name Indians — and similar sport-team names, for that matter.

“It’s part of baseball. It’s part of football,” Leath said. “America has gotten way too sensitive on this subject.”

Neither Leath or Aceves are Cleveland Indians fans and won’t be bothered by the outcome of the mascot debate. But Aceves grew up on the East Coast and has long been a fan of the NFL’s Washington Redskins. He’d hate to see that name disappear.

“If you had to make something up, it’d be weird,” Aceves said.

Heartbreak

Some Native Americans contend it was weird to use a Native American name in the first place.

“Our culture is not a mascot. It’s just not,” said Mario Castellano, a 34-year-old San Bernardino resident and computer science major at Cal State San Bernardino who’s a tribal member of the Los Coyotes Band of Cahuilla and Cupeño Indians.

“They (fans) get the idea that it’s OK to mimic us,” Castellano said.

It’s not, he said.

And Castellano disagrees with the notion that such names and logos honor Native Americans.

To be fair, he said, some Native Americans in Southern California disagree. He has a friend who wears a Cleveland Indians cap.

“Some tribal members in Indian country are for it, and some are against it,” he said.

But Fenelon, a Lakota-Dakota scholar, said a study he conducted in recent years found a large majority of American Indians took offense at the name “Redskins.”

Charli Eaton, a Cal State San Bernardino graduate student pursuing a master’s in public administration, helped with that study. She said she spent much of 2014 interviewing Native Americans, young and old, at pow wows around Southern California.

“I heard some heartbreaking stories,” said Eaton, 68, of Palm Springs, who is mostly English but also one-fourth Shawnee.

Scalping

“The term redskins to them personified the scalping and killing of Native Americans,” she said. “The consensus among the elders was it was a deep insult.”

It’s not just the term redskins.

“Indians” is inappropriate as well, Eaton said, because it turns a race of people into a mascot. And inaccurately at that, she said, noting Christopher Columbus wrongly labeled Native Americans when he arrived centuries ago.

Then there’s Chief Wahoo.

“It just makes you wince,” Eaton said. “It’s just so disrespectful. It’s demeaning.”

Still, despite the conversations that have occurred over what is respectful in recent years, Native American mascots persist in many parts of the country, including Southern California.

For example, Palm Springs High School sports teams have called themselves the Indians since the school opened five and a half decades ago, said Joan Boiko, a Palm Springs Unified School District spokeswoman.

“It’s never been a problem in this district,” Boiko said.

In fact, she said, artists from the local Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians have helped design several school logos over the years.

“They are very proud that our city’s high school has the Indian name,” Boiko said.

In recent years, the school has used a “PS” logo in recent years after once using one with a Native American face.

‘Indians’ not a slur

In Riverside, Norte Vista High School teams have been the Braves for many years.

“Some people think of it as offensive,” said Ron Main, athletic director. “But here at Norte Vista we think it is positive. A brave is a proud, courageous person, and that’s what we want our students to be.“

Main said the school has made changes. Until a few years ago, the school used to have people don mascot outfits with what he described as “silly” Native American masks.

“It was kind of cartoonish,” Main said. “It was kind of offensive to portray an individual or a group as cartoonish.” And it was discontinued, he said.

Carlos Cortes, a UC Riverside professor emeritus of history and expert on minority stereotypes, said he’s not particularly worried about Cleveland.

“I have no objection to the name Indians on a team. In fact I’m a Kansas City Chiefs fan,” said the man who grew up in Kansas City.

“Indians is not a slur. Chiefs is not a slur. Atlanta Braves is not a slur,” Cortes said.

However, he said, “Redskins is more problematic because redskins historically was an ethnic slur.”

And logos, because they can be cartoonish and promote stereotypes, are also often problematic.

Dave is a general assignment reporter based in Riverside, writing about a wide variety of topics ranging from drones and El Nino to trains and wildfires. He has worked for five newspapers in four states: Wyoming, Colorado, Arizona and California. He earned a bachelor's degree in journalism from Colorado State University in 1981. Loves hiking, tennis, baseball, the beach, the Lakers and golden retrievers. He is from the Denver area.

Join the Conversation

We invite you to use our commenting platform to engage in insightful conversations about issues in our community. Although we do not pre-screen comments, we reserve the right at all times to remove any information or materials that are unlawful, threatening, abusive, libelous, defamatory, obscene, vulgar, pornographic, profane, indecent or otherwise objectionable to us, and to disclose any information necessary to satisfy the law, regulation, or government request. We might permanently block any user who abuses these conditions.

If you see comments that you find offensive, please use the “Flag as Inappropriate” feature by hovering over the right side of the post, and pulling down on the arrow that appears. Or, contact our editors by emailing moderator@scng.com.